e live in a valley of great physical beauty, though unfortunately few people get to experience the full extent of it.

I think it’s fair to say that Wells Gray’s trail system currently does a pretty poor job of getting us where we might really like to go. Proof of this is that only about half of the really interesting destinations shown in this Place Map are currently accessible by trail; to visit the remainder, you’ll need to bush whack!

The reason for this is clear. Far too many of the park’s trails are simply hand-me-downs from a time when park use was very different than it is today. Some were originally hunters’ or fishermen’s trails, while others were created by bull dozer operators (!) sent in during the 1960s and 70s out to prepare the way for seven dams then being proposed for the Clearwater River. (Nowadays nobody would dream of damming Helmcken Falls – but that was the plan not forty years ago).

Clicking around on the following Place Map makes visiting many of the beautiful places in the Clearwater Valley easy. Scroll past the Place Map, and you’ll find some instructions on how best to negotiate it.

Some of these places you’ve doubtless seen many times, but others you’re unlikely to get to unless BC Parks can someday be persuaded to rethink the Wells Gray Park trail system.

Place your cursor over one of the coloured dots, and a thumbnail image pops up. Now click on the dot for a larger view. Each dot is colour-coded according to the amount of time a fit hiker would need to reach that destination. Doubling these estimates gives a rough idea of how much time you should allow for the round trip.

  two or more hours each way
  one to two hours each way
  0.5 to one hour each way
  15 to 30 minutes each way
  within 15 minutes each way

To zoom in or out, click on the buttons above the map, click on the magnifying glass icons in the corner, click within the white inset squares that appear inside the map, or press “+” or “-” on your keyboard.